Sports Helped Hillary Clinton Become Secretary of State--Now She's Using Them to Empower Women Worldwide

Sports can be powerful. For proof, just watch whole stadiums, whole cities, even whole countries go crazy when their team wins. Sports have started wars and ended them...but did they pave the way for Hillary Clinton to be Secretary of State?

Last week, Clinton announced a new partnership with espnW, the U.S. Department of State and espnW Global Sports Mentoring Program, with these remarks:

The standout line for me? "Sports helped me to learn how to be part of a team. It also helped me learn how to lose. You can’t win every time you go out, and you have to figure out what you’re made of after you do lose and whether you’re ready to get up and keep going."

Clinton isn't alone in thinking sports are important—one survey of female business execs found that 82 percent played sports growing up, and most said lessons learned on the field contributed to their success. Study after study shows female athletes are more likely to get better grades, go to college, be healthier and happier, and even command higher wages in the workforce. (Golf clap!)

But without the support of something like Title IX around the world, women and girls still struggle to have the same opportunities and reap those benefits. Even in countries where women are allowed to participate in sports, the resources—teams to join, coaches to lead, facilities to play in—often aren't there. Here's where the new program comes in: the Global Sports Mentoring Program will create a network of women sports leaders who can work together on these obstacles.

Supporting the program is the Council to Empower Women and Girls Through Sports, made up of some of America's leading women in sports, like Mia Hamm, Michelle Kwan, and Pat Summitt. Also on the council is Laura Gentile, the vice president and founder of espnW. Full disclosure: Before Glamour, I worked as a news editor at espnW—so she's also my former boss! I got in touch with Laura after she returned from Washington, D.C., to find out more about the new partnership.

The State Department reached out to espnW and ESPN about collaborating in February, when the Empowering Women and Girls Through Sports Initiative launched its first prong, sending former U.S. soccer players around the world as envoys to encourage girls to join them on the field.

Laura was an All-America field hockey player at Duke and led the team to its first-ever NCAA tournament appearance (!), so she has first-hand knowledge of how empowering sports can be. It's something she still witnesses daily: "Sports goes way beyond the playing field. As we’ve seen as we’ve built espnW and as we’ve learned throughout our Title IX content initiative, participation in sports has a tremendous impact on women and girls—it improves our self-esteem, our confidence, our ability to work within teams, our ability to lead and our ability to focus on and achieve goals."

Even though the program is aimed at women abroad, Laura thinks American women will benefit, too. "The host companies for the emerging international leaders will nominate female executives to act as mentors. These mentors—from companies such as Burton, Colavita, Gatorade, P&G, Saatchi & Saatchi, Under Armour, and USA Gymnastics—will be impacted by their interactions with these young women and will learn from them. The entire program is aimed at building greater understanding across cultures"—and understanding flows both ways. Laura is happy to report that ESPN will be hosting two women, as well.

Why focus on mentoring? "It’s critically important, as you build yourself up as a business professional, to be able to learn from others and see them in action," said Laura. "Enabling emerging leaders from all over the world—from the Middle East, East Asia Pacific, Africa, Latin America—to see U.S. business leaders in action will leave an indelible mark and ideally enable these women to envision their future."

She quoted Billie Jean King, the trailblazing tennis star (and a fellow council member): "If you can see it, you can believe it."

Ladies, let's hear from you—how did playing sports affect your life? Did you find any of your mentors or role models through them?